Scores of dead, wounded in Taliban attack on Kandahar airport

At least 37 people have been killed and 35 wounded in a Taliban assault on the Kandahar airport compound, Afghan defense officials have said – as a major conference on security in the region got underway in neighboring Pakistan.

Nine attackers and 37 civilians were killed, including four children and others working in a residential area for army families, according to General Daud Shah Wafadar, an Afghan army commander in Kandahar.

In October, Taliban fighters on motorbikes had carried out hit-and-run attacks on Afghan forces trying to clear Kunduz city of insurgents, more than a week after the militant movement briefly seized the provincial capital.

The Taliban said “martyrdom seekers” entered the base undetected to start “thunderous attacks on foreign and hireling personnel”, killing up to 80 soldiers – an unverified claim.

Pakistan, which many believe has been supporting the Taliban, has proven unable (or unwilling) to make serious efforts to rein them in.

“Several insurgents (have) taken up position inside a school and (are) firing at the airport”, said Sameem Khpalwak, a spokesperson for the local governor.

The sprawling air base played a central role in the yearslong USA military campaign in the country and remains home to thousands of troops and contractors from the NATO-led worldwide coalition that maintains a presence there. One attacker was arrested.

It has both a military and a civilian section, as well as a North Atlantic Treaty Organisation base.

But one Western official who had been briefed on the attack said one person had been killed and six injured. One image showed 10 young men with short beards, armed with Kalashnikovs and dressed in smart, identical military uniforms.

The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack at the heavily fortified airport, the BBC reports.

Afghan President Ashraf Ghani is in Pakistan attending the conference, which seeks to further regional cooperation and is seen as an opportunity for Afghanistan and Pakistan to move toward re-starting (re-re-re-starting?) the peace process aborted earlier this year.

Using suicide bombers, rocket-propelled grenade launchers and small arms, 14 Taliban militants attacked Kandahar Air Field Tuesday night, eventually occupying buildings inside the perimeter of the adjacent civilian airport, Afghan government and military officials said. Fighting continued Wednesday into the early evening after Afghan National Army forces surrounded the attackers.